National Cartoonist Society Profile: Will Eisner

Born March 3, 1917 in New York City. Grew up in all the various boroughs. Starting producing comic books in 1937. Sheena, Hawk of the Seas, etc. Started The Spirit for Sunday news papers between 1940-1952. Introduced comics for training manuals while in army (World War II). Published educational comics for schools and industry from 1952-72, including maintenance manuals in comics format. President Bell-McClure Syndicate 1965. Taught sequential art at SVA from 1974-93. Books: Comics & Sequential Art, Graphic Novels: Contract with God, Life Force, Heart of the Storm, Dropsie Avenue, and others. Helping on Board of International Museum of Cartoon Art. I'm proudest of my National Cartoonist Society 1995 Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award. Live in Florida, travel, tennis and work.

Tales of the Bizarro World!

It all started with the "Bizarro Code"... Us do opposites of all earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is a big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World! So was the beginning of one of the wackiest characters to grace the comics, the original "Idiot of Steel". Created by writer Alvin Schwartz and artist Curt Swan for the Superman newspaper strip in the late 1950s, its publication was delayed, so Bizarro eventually made his first appearance in Superboy #68 by creators Otto Binder and George Papp. This "first" Bizarro was created as an "imperfect duplicate" of Superboy by a machine invented by a Dr. Dalton that unfortunately immediately exploded. This replica fought Superboy for a few issues before "disintegrating into the lifeless molecules from which it was formed."

But most readers fondly remember the adult Bizarro Superman that appeared in Action Comics #244-245 written by Otto Binder with Al Plastino doing the art chores. This time, Lex Luthor creates another duplication machine that he turns on the "Man of Steel", as well as making him a Bizarro Lois to be his bride. At the end of the storyline, the Bizarro's leave earth to find happiness on a new planet, where they create more duplicates of themselves and others in the Superman Family on their strange cube-shaped world. Bizarro, who was never a true villain, but more a lovable nuisance, made other "guest" appearance in the Superman features before being awarded his own back-up stories, starting with Adventure Comics #285, June 1961. The Tales of the Bizarro World ran for fifteen wacky episodes over the next two years, producing some of the craziest stories to ever hit the comics, played strictly for laughs!

Foreign Favorites: Perry Rhodan

The most popular science fiction strip to come out of Germany, Perry Rhodan im Bild (Perry Rhodan in Pictures) debuted in 1968, following closely the novels of the immortal Terran Overlord, drawn by Kurt Caesar. With a large and complicated cast of characters, after twenty seven issues the feature was streamlined and renamed to Perry, in an effort to bring in new readers not familiar with the earlier books. Drawn now in a bolder "Marvel Comics" style, the new look was illustrated by Italian artist Giorgio Gambiotti from the Giolitti Studio in Rome, with some innovating sleek compositions. With many of these later stories written by Dirk Hess, Perry traveled the universe accompanied by a collection of beautiful women which helped it to be reprinted in Italy, France, and Israel. At the height of its popularity, Perry was released in movies, television, and long-playing records in Germany. But after one hundred twenty nine issues, Perry, like other German comics, became victim to the higher costs of production with its last stellar issue hitting the newsstands in the summer of 1975. Fortunately, I've heard from a friend recently that the fan-favorite title is now back in print with all new adventures.

Marvel Spotlight: Red Sonja

Marvel's "She-Devil with a sword" made her first appearance in Conan the Barbarian #23, February 1973, as the only warrior woman worthy to cross swords with Robert E. Howard's most famous character. A beautiful fire-haired damsel, she ended up in the royal palace after her family was needlessly slain by soldiers who brought her to the king as a trophy of war. Sonja eventually killed the sovereign after she spurned his many advances. Now having to flee the majestic Kingdom of Hyrkania, she took up pillaging as her trade in her many adventures chronicled in Conan and Marvel Features before getting her own title in 1975. Much of the success of the comic was due to Frank Thorne's striking image of the lovely heroine, scanty clad in her delightful chain-mail bikini. The artist's extensive research and attention to detail managed to capture the very essence of Howard's novels with its exotic landscapes, weird people, mystery and magic. Once Thorne left Red Sonja, the title floundered under less talented creators for a few years before its cancellation and a failed movie adaptation. Recently however, revived under the Dynamite Entertainment label, the character lives on in new adventures with a big budget major motion picture soon to be in production, for a new generation of fans.